New Website

It would appear that my blogs are like buses, none for three months then along come 2 at once. Actually that’d be a pretty lame bus company – let’s just say that i’ve been inconsistent and I know it. If anyone actually reads my ramblings then I apologise but I do have a (kind of) excuse.

I have been working hard (going for the sympathy vote here) at rebuilding my company website so i looks a bit more up-to-date and stuff. If you’d be kind enough to take a peek, you can get to it here. I have listened carefully to all of my loyal F5 pushers, waiting for the site to change and have dropped a load of stuff on there work-wise so you can access a much fatter chunk of the Jojopops creative history – hooray I hear you cry. I have also updated stuff, yes that’s right, there is new stuff on there too.

Seriously though, thanks for your patience and I hope you’re happy with the changes. Please feel free to send me lots of nice feedback messages and if you don’t like something, let me know too but try and be nice about it – i’m a fragile being (yea right!). Hopefully i’ll be a bit more regular from now on – i’ll try my hardest.

Some cool stuff to report (Musics and iPhone goodness)

Ninja Tuna – Mr Scruff

Who’s heard “Ninja Tuna” yet? I bought Mr Scruff’s latest album with high hopes and I was rewarded with gold, pure gold. The warbly bass from Trouser Jazz is there and so is the immaculate roughness of Keep it Unreal. If you’re taking the time to read this then I’m assuming that you’ve already given “Donkey Ride”  (Scruff & Quantic) a listen and loved it – if not then bad you! If you’re a Tru Thinker then you’ll welcome the offerings of Alice Russell in probably my favourite track “Music Takes Me Up”. As with all music releases there’s something you’d wished would be on there but wasn’t and for me that’s the Scruff comedy track (such as Vibrate, Fish, Shanty Town) but to be honest I can’t complain – Scruff has released a monster (drawn in black marker pen with a potatoey feel to it!)

Slime & Reason – Roots Manuva

The Banana Klan returneth and once again Mr Manuva drops a banger. I’m slightly reluctant to say this but think it’s probably worthwhile – I think Slime & Reason could be Mr Rodney Smith’s best album release to date. I say this reluctantly as for me “Run Come Save Me” holds a special place in both my heart and my record bag. There are 2 versions of the album available for exchange if you have a hand full of pennies. The album (green goo) and the album with 7 track bonus disc (pink goo), normally i’d go for green goo (being a boy and all) but the extra disc sucked me in and was so worth it. Infact i’ve actually bothered to drop it into Garageband and make a ringtone from the opening of “Again & Again & Again”. Seriously, if you’re not sure then get into HMV and use the barcode swiper thing to give this album a listen. Again & Again is an instant classic – really not much more is needed to be said on the matter, “Do Na Bodda Mi” is quite easily the most sing-a-long(y) of the tracks – i’ve had it belting out in the car through the Welsh Hills and many a sheep was seen bobbing it’s wooly head. Finally “Let the Spirit” is an incredibly powerful track, the production is great, lyrics are hypnotic and a great piece of music.

Google Earth – On the iPhone!!!

Finally you can imitate the Spooks, James Bond, Ethan Hunt or whoever with your iPhone and the FREE app from google – Google Earth! Normally a map application wouldn’t get me feeling like a secret agent but having a satellite image of your house on a palm held touch-screen makes me feel powerful and when I get chance I think i’ll be getting the video camera out to shoot some footage with the app for future embarassment. From a technical point of view – if you’ve got the iPhone 3G then you should pretty much get the photography on the go without wifi, i’ve found that the GPRS kicks in first so you get the pulsating blue dot for a few seconds before the photography drops itself in. The map works pretty much identically to the Mac/PC app but has the added feature of linking the iPhone’s tilt feature into the 3D modes so you can look an your map from some non-top-down angles which is pretty cool. I guess it’s just time before Google release a safe breaking app and then my iPhone will become a force to be reckoned with!